In the UK, Summer used to mean a few fleeting days of mild sunshine, scoffing a melted choc ice in my Nan’s backyard and still needing to put a cardigan on in the evening. Thanks to climate change however, British Summer is rapidly turning into a crash course on how to survive 6 weeks in Mount Doom.
We’re now regularly seeing temperatures soaring to 38°C (that’s a blistering 100.4°F for our American readers across the pond), which alone probably doesn’t sound that dramatic, but as everyone over the age of 40 says, IT’S THE HUMIDITY THAT GETS YOU.
Anyway, to my point, for anyone living in a classic heat-retaining UK brick house built to withstand the winters and middling summers of the past, sitting indoors and trying to game in this heat feels like trying to play Diablo 4 from actual Hell.
It’s put me off turning my Xbox on at all and pushed me further into the arms of handheld gaming.
Gaming is so hot right now, literally.
The whole family playing Palworld this afternoon sent our living room hotter than the surface of the sun (Image credit: Jennifer Young – Windows Central)
Under full load, both the Xbox Series X and S I have in my living room act like electric radiators at best, but during Summer it’s absolutely unbearable.
The Xbox Series X draws around 160 to 200 watts of power when rendering demanding games, dumping nearly every single watt of that electricity straight back out into the room as pure thermal exhaust. Naturally, this raises the question: is Microsoft doing anything to help us out?
It’s worth noting that Microsoft’s revised Xbox Series X models (including the all-digital white edition) have a smaller chip, and I’m still rocking the old disc model. The new chips pull roughly 10 to 15 watts less from the wall and are more power-efficient, but I doubt that 10-watt difference has a dramatic enough effect on heat output.
In my case, I play mainly on a Series S anyway, which, while about half as powerful as the Series X, also dumps every watt it generates out the vent as heat.
The Xbox Toaster might be a real, actual kitchen appliance, but I’d argue you could fry an egg to go with it on my Series S. Though disclaimer: I didn’t actually risk breaking my console to try this; the picture is a joke. Have you seen how much the Xbox costs nowadays?
Retreating to the cold arms of the ROG Ally X
Once it hitsa certain temperature, you’ll find me with Dave the Diver and a cold pint (Image credit: Jennifer Young – Windows Central)
I’ve had a love-hate relationship with my ROG Ally X, but faced with giving up gaming for the summer or melting into my couch, I’ve been pushed willingly back into its arms as my device of choice.
Sure, it also generates some heat of its own, but it’s more akin to holding a Dyson hairdryer than having full-force hot winds blowing into my living room. That being said, there are plenty of ways I can lower the impact, like dropping the TDP and playing in Silent mode.
I’ve also leaned a little harder into Xbox Cloud Gaming during these hot spells. Using the cloud, I can play the more graphically heavy titles on a lower-power screen without melting my lap away.
Granted, using the Cloud is environmentally ironic
Nadella tells us Microsoft is trying to lessen it’s carbon footprint (Image credit: Getty Images | George Chan / Stringer)
While handhelds and cloud gaming save my immediate space from an unbearable meltdown, I do need to acknowledge that cloud gaming doesn’t actually eliminate heat entirely. It’s simply displacing it elsewhere, namely to Microsoft’s massive server infrastructure.
Data centers require colossal amounts of electricity to run high-end server blades and even more energy to power the massive industrial chillers keeping those racks cool. As climate change continues to drive extreme weather across Europe and North America, relying on cloud infrastructure simply shifts the burden elsewhere. I’m saving myself from sweating today, but streaming high-bitrate video from a rack of server GPUs miles away and outsourcing my discomfort to Microsoft carries its own heavy carbon footprint.
Big tech is wrestling with this environmental paradox, and Microsoft has faced intense scrutiny over its climate impact, with reports highlighting how data center water usage could double or even triple by 2030 due to intense cooling demands.
The company is more than aware of the backlash. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella recently touted new closed-loop liquid cooling technologies, claiming their revamped data centers can drastically cut water consumption down to what a single restaurant would use per year. But whether closed-loop cooling fixes the issue or not, the sheer electrical demand of running hyperscale infrastructure isn’t disappearing. Every time I stream a game to keep my bedroom cool, Microsoft’s servers are working overtime and sweating on my behalf.
Surviving the new normal
This guy on Reddit built a whole PC chimney for his setup (Image credit: Reddit [@scvready0808])
Until air conditioning becomes standard in British housing, summer gaming will remain an uncomfortable and sweaty juggling act for me.
For now, my Series S is taking an extended summer break, staying firmly switched off. You’ll find me sat next to an open window begging for a slight breeze and relying on my gaming handheld to get me through the heatwave.
Or you know, I could just read a book…
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